The present disclosure relates to methods for making and using holographic data storage articles. Further, the disclosure relates to holographic data storage articles.
Holographic storage is the storage of data in the form of holograms, which are images of three dimensional interference patterns created by the intersection of two beams of light, in a photosensitive medium. The superposition of a signal beam, which contains digitally encoded data, and a reference beam forms an interference pattern within the volume of the medium resulting in a chemical reaction that changes or modulates the refractive index of the medium. This modulation serves to record as the hologram both the intensity and phase information from the signal. The hologram can later be retrieved by exposing the storage medium to the reference beam alone, which interacts with the stored holographic data to generate a reconstructed signal beam proportional to the initial signal beam used to store the holographic image. Thus, in holographic data storage, data is stored throughout the volume of the medium via three dimensional interference patterns.
Each hologram may contain anywhere from one to 1×106 or more bits of data. One distinct advantage of holographic storage over surface-based storage formats, including CDs or DVDs, is that a large number of holograms may be stored in an overlapping manner in the same volume of the photosensitive medium using a multiplexing technique, such as by varying the signal and/or reference beam angle, wavelength, or medium position. However, a major impediment towards the realization of holographic storage as a viable technique has been the development of a reliable and economically feasible storage medium.
Early holographic storage media employed inorganic photo-refractive crystals, such as doped or un-doped lithium niobate (LiNbO3), in which incident light creates refractive index changes. These index changes are due to the photo-induced creation and subsequent trapping of electrons leading to an induced internal electric field that ultimately modifies the refractive index through a linear electro-optic effect. However, LiNbO3 is expensive, exhibits relatively poor efficiency, fades over time, and requires thick crystals to observe any significant index changes.
More recent work has led to the development of polymers that can sustain larger refractive index changes owing to optically induced polymerization processes. These materials, which are referred to as photopolymers, have significantly improved optical sensitivity and efficiency relative to LiNbO3 and its variants. In prior art processes, “single-chemistry” systems have been employed, wherein the media comprise a homogeneous mixture of at least one photo-active polymerizable liquid monomer or oligomer, an initiator, an inert polymeric filler, and optionally a sensitizer. Since it initially has a large fraction of the mixture in monomeric or oligomeric form, the medium may have a gel-like consistency that necessitates an ultraviolet (UV) curing step to provide form and stability. Unfortunately, the UV curing step may consume a large portion of the photo-active monomer or oligomer, leaving significantly less photo-active monomer or oligomer available for data storage. Furthermore, even under highly controlled curing conditions, the UV curing step may often result in variable degrees of polymerization and, consequently, poor uniformity among media samples.
Dye-doped data storage materials based on polymeric materials have been developed. The sensitivity of a dye-doped data storage material is dependent upon the concentration of the dye, the dye's absorption cross-section at the recording wavelength, the quantum efficiency of the photochemical transition, and the index change of the dye molecule for a unit dye density. However, as the product of dye concentration and the absorption cross-section increases, the storage medium (for example, an optical data storage disc) becomes opaque, which complicates both recording and readout.
Therefore, there is a need for holographic data storage methods whereby high volumetric data storage capacities can be achieved using photochemically active dyes that are efficient and sensitive to electromagnetic energy, such as light without interference from the main absorption peak of the dye.